Not being able to simply 'like' a post makes forum seem clunky once you've used FB or G+. It's a simple and very effective way of acknowledging what someone has said was useful/interesting/informative etc. Whereas writing a reply to post which may be nowhere near post in question to try and communicate your approval is clumsy and often not worth doing.

...feeling that you've expressed yourself when you have nothing whatsoever to say, or were just confused or mistaken or... ;-)

No, it's exactly as I said - It's a simple and very effective way of acknowledging what someone has said was useful/interesting/informative etc. Just because you don't get it, doesn't mean others also struggle.

That is subjective. I am sure there are some who think your original post was bad but you think it is good.

YES! Yay! You finally get it. Of course that post would be hidden if it was tagged as a bad post by lots of people. That is the whole point.

In practice, these things aren't really used to censor something people disagree with. They are used more to hide irrelevant or grossly inflammatory statements. We are all adults and we understand disagreement--that is how we learn and grow.

This forum is the most civilised place of any online forum I have posted on (especially photog ones).

I find FB far, far more civilised. But then I don't befriend lunatics. Only one or two percent are people I've not met in the real world and I befriended them because we had mutual friends so I had interacted a fair bit with them online first and got on.

Somehow I don't think any of my friends will be appearing on this FB page. Which is a real insight into a whole other world, sometimes scary, sometimes jaw-droppingly bad and sometimes plain bonkers.

This sort of voting can end up being like an online lynch mob, or at best a high school clique, with the in-crowd "like"ing each others posts and voting down the odd-balls. Personally I don't want to take part in a forum like that.

This sort of voting can end up being like an online lynch mob, or at best a high school clique, with the in-crowd "like"ing each others posts and voting down the odd-balls.

Exactly right. The various flavors of "like/dislike" forum voting features are no more informative than school popularity contests -- they don't tell you anything about the candidate. Even if the goals set forth in the Opening Post of this thread were needed on this forum (which I and others have argued they are not), such forum features are incapable of accomplishing those goals.

An interesting peek into the range of personality, I suppose. Come upon something mundane and pre-existing, with an established structure and form (this forum, your bank's website, the local school board, the placement of the benches in the town square, the trash pickup schedule, the layout of your cell phone statement, etc., etc.) and set out to change it.

Noting some 'flaw' or 'deficiency', some folks just shrug or move on, others feel compelled to make suggestions, lobby for change, write a strongly-worded letter, etc.